Summary
Leland Dudek, Trump’s newly appointed Social Security Administration (SSA) chief, has reportedly ordered plans for a 50% workforce cut, potentially closing field offices and delaying benefits.
Critics, including Rep. John Larson and advocacy groups, warn this move will disrupt services for seniors and disabled Americans. Five regional SSA commissioners are resigning in protest.
The cuts align with Elon Musk’s push for AI-driven government efficiency, despite concerns over fraud prevention and accessibility.
Critics argue this is a backdoor benefit cut to fund tax breaks for the wealthy.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Amen.
So… my only income is SSDI.
Thats Disability.
From my entirely self-interested POV:
Optimistic View:
They don’t actually directly destroy the underlying records and computer systems that keep those records and disperse payments for those already in the system, they layoff people that process new applicants and re-evaluations, and I can hopefully coast by unnoticed, at least until Congress actually passes a law to slash all payments by some fraction and/or just blanket remove a bunch of people by… some ruleset.
Pessimistic View:
They let Elon and the Broccoli boys in, they just break everything and well actually everything we broke was fraud and the proof is uh shut up, and I starve to death, unhoused, in… 30 to 60 days.
Realistic View:
Impossible to estimate in clown world.
…
I will tell ya’ll that I’ve gotten my last two payments nearly a week early, completely out of sync with what their web portal says.
Normally it varies by a day or two off of the typical payment date because of weekends or holidays or somethinf, but that is actually reflected in the web portal.
Last two months they are not even bothering to update the date on the web portal to match the actual pay out date.
They are terrified that the Trump admin will nuke the whole thing at any moment, and are trying to buy people time.
Not fucking good.
My administrative law judge hearing was rescheduled because of Carter’s death. Now I have to wait till June. I seriously wonder if it’ll exist by then.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, if there’s anything you actually have the means or contacts to prepare with or for…
What a fucking mess.
Yeah I’m trying to figure out if I could do any courrier jobs like medicine delivery or something like that
If their actions are going to kill you then you are justified in defending yourself.
How would someone defend themselves in this instance? Double credit for how to do it with an unknown disability.
lets-a-go, yahoo
I obviously can’t be specific since I don’t know what the disability is, but people can be creative when it comes to reciprocal harm.
They are terrified that the Trump admin will nuke the whole thing at any moment, and are trying to buy people time.
You’re probably lucky enough to be in the jurisdiction of someone or some team that is actually empathetic.
Unfortunately, they’ll be the first against the wall when the doge comes.
Good luck mon ami (from someone outside the US, looking in in horror).
Been saying this for a year now:
I’m open to a sham marriage for residency if you are!
People apparently thought I was joking, as if something like this wasn’t obviously coming.
As for jurisdiction…
I have it set up as a direct deposit to my bank account, what with having had my car stolen and being crippled and all, makes cashing a mailed check extremely painful.
I have no clue how the undergirding bureacracy handles it. AFAIK, it would be a federal level system, with nothing really to do with any local office, but I don’t know for sure.
So if they’re gutting social security, what happens to all the money I paid in?
Are we just going to have an epidemic of elderly people working until they die/collapsing in the street?
Yacht money for the rich. They need it more than the old and disabled
I intend to sue for everything i put in. On the grounds that them not paying me back is theft.
Social security funds itself and they have zero right to take it to give to scumbag billionaires. Its not their money.
I’m sure the dead-eyed Paul Ryan types would love that situation. He dreamt of killing such programs since he was quite young.
And I bet quite a few cons, even if harmed by this, will be happy to open wide and let the likes of fElon and Bronzo take a big dump in their mouth, as long as they thought a liberal would have to smell it. So if they have to work until they die, but they “owned the libs”, I bet some of them will still revel in it…
That’s not how Social Security works. It’s not a retirement fund.
The people who pay in today fund the soc sec payments to people who are qualified to receive benefits today.
Are we just going to have an epidemic of elderly people working until they die/collapsing in the street?
Yes.
Glad I gave them 150k
If I had invested my SSI payments over the years, I would be getting way more each month just from the dividends/interest.
The nation’s economy relies on people who don’t make enough to tuck money away.
Sounds like a George W Bush voter
So that elderly and disabled people who need that right now to survive right now, yes.
Most after me already rebuttled to this. But there’s a point that really pisses me off with the boomers. I see them getting free Healthcare, free college courses if they want them, and other benefits all while they led to the bullshit we all have to live with today. It’s the I got mine, fuck you, generation. And everyday it gets harder to see my friends struggle to live while they continue to vote more and more red. Generalization for sure but statistically accurate. I was fortunate enough to max out my SS payments for most of my career and the whole time I assumed I’d never see a penny of it because this fucking generation was gonna gut it before they die off so they can buy a 3rd house.
Under the agreement that it would be there for us though.
I’m glad that people are getting payments, but I want it too; it’s a benefit that we were promised for good reasons.
They’re right to be pissed that they paid into it without getting that benefit.
That I can agree with.
I still stand by:
What happens to all the money I paid in?
- It pays for the benefits qualified recipients receive today.
I understand what you are saying, but the typical Republican and libertarian argument against social security is that “it’s my money, I should be able to manage it myself, I can get a better rate of return than the government.”
So if they are going to gut SS without paying us all back, that’s just boldly hypocritical of them. Though that’s not surprising, of course.
It used to be fully funded with the money paid into it. Your current contributions are supposed to be paying for your future security.
https://www.fedsmith.com/2013/10/11/ronald-reagan-and-the-great-social-security-heist/
It kind of is supposed to be that actually. What else would you call a system that you pay into your entire life?
But it’s just literally not. People who are eligible for social security benefits receive them. People who earn income pay for those benefits. There isn’t a “your money” in social security like there is in a 401k or IRA.
It’s everybody’s money. And you are eligible to withdraw from it once you are over a certain age. Why are you arguing semantics?
Because it’s not a good faith argument. People like that hate the idea there’s a social contract and like to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Don’t forget the permanently disabled… like … most people do.
sigh
But uh yeah, you’re looking at something like 30 to 60 million elderly and greivously disabled people being evicted and starving to death, if they just wipe it all out.
I… would like to think that effectively murdering 10% to 20% of your own population would lead to a massive armed rebellion… but I uh, honestly don’t know at this point.
Fun Fact!
You need a permanent mailing address to apply for SNAP.
I mean, they’re already cuttinf that down too, but yeah, if you’ve been evicted, if you are homeless?
You can’t even do step one of applying for food benefits.
Homeless people can have their mail sent directly to the post office. No word on what will happen if USPS is purged though.
You get nothing, and yes. Worst of both worlds!
They will just pocket it like everything else. And yes they intend us to work to death and be grateful for it.
If I’m being honest, I don’t expect to see a penny of social security. I’m making other arrangements wherever possible
Take a look at what’s happening in Japan. The old has to work, and sometimes most unpleasant jobs, eg cleaning up Fukushima.
I don’t know if Japan is a good example but Korea sure is. Broke seniors collect garbage and resort to sex work
A lot of older people volunteered to work Fukushima to protect the younger generations and I have family that work just to get out and do something and the extra cash isn’t bad. That said, there are people who have to work. I think one or two sentences is way too simplified to go over the whole thing. Working in bigger companies and such also tends to get a better pension (over the public one) with some having additional pensions and such.
Edit to add: not all do actual work; some of my retired family volunteer (or do both)
Conservatives will open their mouths for the piss of lies. The ones that dont or cant work will be screwed
Your fund…
Our fund
TL;DR: you paying in now is funding paying out now.
Your contributions fund today’s recipients. When you eventually become a recipient then the contributors of that day fund you.
This is the way of all superannuation funds around the world, they rely on the current generation of workers to fund the previous generations’ retirement (or the current generations’ disabled, etc.)
It’s basically a pyramid scheme.
And it’s falling apart since less and less people get born so you will never get out what you have paid in. It’s a system designed for the Boomer generation.
General Strike starting to look awfully good…
There we go. Purge all the old people that vote republican and use social security. Disabled people are fucked no matter what. See Trump’s remarks to his uncle about his disabled son.
It’s time to start cutting out the cancer and getting our society back. Billionaires are the cancer. Mangione had the right idea. Make them hide in bunkers and live in fear cut off from society. Billionaires are the source of all corruption and corruption is why our government is failing.
I don’t want to live in a violent society but the billionaires are the ones committing violence. Therefore we should defend ourselves
Neither do I. None of us normal people want anything more than a comfortable life. It’s these psychotic billionaires that can’t stop taking no matter the cost to humanity. They are backing us all into a corner and making this shit necessary. They are monsters.
This is a great idea. Old people never vote.
Take a look at Gen Z dumbasses
And I’m saying this as a Gen Z
I’m not sure the qons plan on elections.
When fElon keeps talking about the need to “move fast” and Bannon talks about muzzle velocity, it’s not because the things they are doing are wanted by a majority of the country, or even most of the magamorons that voted for this shit. They feel the need to speed-run through this as fast as possible before anyone can stop them or do anything later (by voting) to reverse this shit show.
Yea, that’s what out looks like ri me too. Hopefully they don’t get away with it.
They won’t be voting if they starve and die before the next election.
Remember that racism has no age limit. These people will blame immigrants and be glad that their social security paid for their deportation.
Let’s not castigate an entire generation now, shall we? Broad generalizations are exactly where racism starts.
I agree with you on a general level, but the boomers have brought this on themselves by fucking up society for every generation after them, and they continue to do so from positions of power they should have vacated years ago.
Perhaps they should be the ones to start having to justify their continued reliance on social systems and prove they haven’t been a net drain instead here. That’s what they seem to be trying to constantly claim immigrants are doing, maybe they need to have those questions asked of them instead.
Agreed. This is the one government agency where the majority of them benefit from its existence.
All but the very youngest boomers are already eligible.
They fucked around for decades, fuck us for decades and it’s time they find out.
If one gets to claim that an entire generation beat the Nazis the one gets to claim the subsequent generation sucks.
